The Waikato Times.

Waikato Times, Volume XII, Issue 973, 17 September 1878, Page 2

The Waikato Times.

Equal and exact justice to all men, " Of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political. ♦ ■ * * * * Here shall the Press the People's right maintain, Unawed by influenco and nnbribed by gain. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1878. An ..important announcement to Waikato agriculturalists has reached us from Wellington— no less a matter than the reduction by 25 per cent, on the freight of potatoes between Waikato and Auckland. This will onable our settlers to forward potatoes by rail at a cost of something like fourteen shillings per ton from Ohaupo, and cannot be too generally known at the present season, as it may induce imny to plant who. would not otherwise have don ft so. Ihe reduction of freight on all articles of farm produce where a railway is newly formed through

newly settled country is sound ! policy.There is a point to which j &BMsss^Qik may be carried with tSePy|Ente{?e both t© the railway >md to fch^ijtettier.3, and the authorities \fil^o; wejjk to work steadily m that direction Ml they have found the minium Ipfarge that will produce the iftrgQß^profitable amount o c increasejl^jtram'c. A certain working expenditure h&s necessarily to be k;ept up on the line, a certain number qf.officialsand,wcrlcraen : must be maintained, let the traffic be neTer so light. Increased traffic,up to a certain point, does not necessarily meajft^ in^ creased expenditure, and after that point eyeiij is| rea.ched,r ligcreased traffic agairj op'to another pblnVcfoes not mean increased ; expenditure m the same < proportion. >. A>-. i few extra trucks attached to an engine, can be run hit teas comparative cost than the first haif-idozen trucks only Gould be ran. ■ ; It is quite possible,-, therefore, by redncing the cost 6t freight, for railway authorities to very largely ; increase the traffic, and yet find the receipts outbalance the expenditure m much larger proportion i h an when they cripple trade by imposing restrictive charges. And wh&t applies to live arid dead produce sent from the country to the market town or port applies equally to such' articles as manure, lime, agricultural implements, &c r The^more of theise brought 1 into We country district the greaser>eresfjter ;will r be the traffic back again. And not only this, the prosperity which cheap and easy communication for this agricultural produce " a&d requirements 'confers ; upon the country district would increase tho, traffic of the line m other ways. The more monjsy the settler ia enabled to make fromj his farm the more he can afford to spend, and this makes local trade brisk, -which beans m its turn the increased carriage ; ; pf a wiejiy jof goods payihg : a higher class of freight and an increased passenger traffic. :; ; ->'■ It is exceedingly satisfactory ,to find, since the, retirement of Mr Paasniore a more business-like, spirit of enterprise pervading the' 'executive department of railways in 1 New Zealand. There are some errors : of system yet to : be rectified— many improvements m their working to be ' made—but changes^ are being effected m the right direction^ and ,it would appear that they are being carefully, even if slowly, and perhaps necessarily so, made m the direction of the last, we have now to announce, a thoroughly business-like step, which is likely to be profitable to the colonial public as carriers and the Waikato public as producers.